Nearly two years after Van Gogh Street Elementary school was razed due to major damage in the Northridge earthquake, beaming school district and federal officials broke ground Tuesday to rebuild it. The 350-student school was the only one so badly damaged it was torn down after the 1994 temblor, and officials said its $6.1-million, FEMA-funded reconstruction is a sign that the quake's ravages can be finally repaired.

Several classrooms have had no heat during the recent cold snap. Ironically, the root of the problem lies in air conditioning, which is currently being installed at the 38-year-old school. The work on the central air-conditioning system began as soon as the 420-student Granada Hills school was dismissed for the summer, Principal Rosemary Enzer said. "They had to dismantle the heat to install it." Completion of the project, which was due in September, is now expected in a "few weeks," Enzer said.

Dressed in a sequined evening gown, Kim Little of the Valley Community Health Clinic advocated the use of cigarettes to about 120 eighth-graders gathered in the school auditorium at Robert Frost Middle School. "Smoking gives people pleasure and enjoyment," said Little, playing "Virginia Slimes," a cigarette company spokeswoman in a satirical play put on by the clinic. "I represent a product that brings in thousands of dollars daily. It's a great pastime."

L.A. Cellular's plan to build a cellular phone antenna on the campus of Patrick Henry Middle School in Granada Hills is on hold. The company asked zoning officials to postpone a decision on the proposal. The request came on the heels of a hearing at which neighbors blasted the idea. "I'm giving them an opportunity to talk to the community," said associate zoning administrator Horace Tramel.

Voicing their anger at a plan to build a cellular telephone antenna on a neighborhood school, about 100 Granada Hills residents attended a meeting Wednesday night to blast the idea as ill-conceived. "The very bottom line is, we don't want it," said Sharon Black, who with Arline Kaltenbach has led the opposition to L.A. Cellular's attempt to erect a 62-foot transmitter on the campus of Patrick Henry Middle School.

It could have been viewed as the political version of the movie "He Said, She Said." Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson and challenger Julie Korenstein sniped at each other via fax machine Friday, as Bernson fired off a press release seeking to blame her for a school disturbance in Granada Hills and Korenstein attacked him for using city equipment to do so. The two are campaigning in the June 4 runoff for Bernson's northwest San Fernando Valley seat.

Nearly two years after Van Gogh Street Elementary School was razed following crippling damage in the Northridge earthquake, beaming school district and federal officials broke ground Tuesday at a site where it will be rebuilt. The 350-student school in Granada Hills was damaged so severely in the earthquake that it had to be torn down. Officials called its $6.1-million reconstruction a sign that the quake's ravages can finally be repaired.

A counselor at Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills has been named president-elect of the 800-member California School Counselors Assn. Bill Gorback, 45, will serve as president-elect of the professional organization for a year before assuming the presidency on March 1, 1997. During his tenure, the Thousand Oaks resident hopes to push for smaller student-to-counselor ratios and to implement school programs that stem violence by teaching youngsters to handle their emotions.

After months of conflicts that led to its suspension, the Parent Teacher Student Assn. has returned to Porter Middle School following a monthlong series of mediation talks among the school's principal, PTSA officials and district administrators. Ongoing conflicts between Porter Principal Sherry Breskin and school PTSA President Chris Taylor led to the group's suspension from the campus in August. PTSA members said the problems stemmed from Breskin's attempts to dictate PTSA actions.

School officials and parents at Patrick Henry Middle School are determined that their students will not miss out on the Information Age. The school will move one step closer to that goal today when parents and other volunteers complete a wiring project begun earlier this year. Patrick Henry is one of the local schools participating in NetDay '96, a nationwide effort to bring schools online.

Nearly two years after Van Gogh Street Elementary School was razed following crippling damage in the Northridge earthquake, beaming school district and federal officials broke ground Tuesday at a site where it will be rebuilt. The 350-student school in Granada Hills was damaged so severely in the earthquake that it had to be torn down. Officials called its $6.1-million reconstruction a sign that the quake's ravages can finally be repaired.

Nearly two years after Van Gogh Street Elementary school was razed due to major damage in the Northridge earthquake, beaming school district and federal officials broke ground Tuesday to rebuild it. The 350-student school was the only one so badly damaged it was torn down after the 1994 temblor, and officials said its $6.1-million, FEMA-funded reconstruction is a sign that the quake's ravages can be finally repaired.

A counselor at Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills has been named president-elect of the 800-member California School Counselors Assn. Bill Gorback, 45, will serve as president-elect of the professional organization for a year before assuming the presidency on March 1, 1997. During his tenure, the Thousand Oaks resident hopes to push for smaller student-to-counselor ratios and to implement school programs that stem violence by teaching youngsters to handle their emotions.

When life gives you earthquakes . . . might as well buy a seismometer. That's what Granada Hills High School did last fall. After the Northridge quake displaced the school's math, science and technology magnet students from classrooms at neighboring Cal State Northridge, Principal Kathy Rattay applied for federal Department of Education grant money to replicate lost facilities and equipment.

Students from Van Gogh Street Elementary School, the only Los Angeles Unified district campus that may have to be abandoned because of the Jan. 17 earthquake, settled in to new surroundings Tuesday, relocating to five portable classrooms and one empty wing of nearby Frost Middle School.

After months of conflicts that led to its suspension, the Parent Teacher Student Assn. has returned to Porter Middle School following a monthlong series of mediation talks among the school's principal, PTSA officials and district administrators. Ongoing conflicts between Porter Principal Sherry Breskin and school PTSA President Chris Taylor led to the group's suspension from the campus in August. PTSA members said the problems stemmed from Breskin's attempts to dictate PTSA actions.

A city zoning official has denied a city permit for the construction of a controversial 62-foot-high pole antenna for cellular phone transmissions on the campus of Patrick Henry Middle School. In a report released Tuesday, Associate Zoning Administrator Horace Tramel rejected a conditional-use permit requested by L.A. Cellular to build the antenna at the school.

Making another attempt to reassure neighbors that their proposal to place a cellular telephone antenna at a Granada Hills school is safe, representatives from L.A. Cellular held a second community meeting Tuesday night to address concerns. The problems was, the neighbors weren't buying it.